.\"-
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
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.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
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.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
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.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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.\"
.Dd September 25, 2025
.Dt HIER 7
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm hier
.Nd index of
.Fx
file system hierarchy
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Bl -tag -width "/libexec/"
.It Pa /
root directory of the file system
.It Pa /COPYRIGHT
.Fx
copyright information
.It Pa /bin/
fundamental
.Bx
user utilities; see
.Xr intro 1
.It Pa /boot/
programs and configurations used during
.Fx
.Xr boot 8
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "loader.conf.d/" -compact
.It Pa defaults/
default boot configuration files; see
.Xr loader.conf 5
.It Pa device.hints
kernel variables for controlling drivers; see
.Xr device.hints 5
.It Pa dtb/
compiled flattened device tree (FDT) files; see
.Xr fdt 4
and
.Xr dtc 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "overlays/" -compact
.It Pa overlays/
compiled
.Xr fdt 4
overlays; see
.Va fdt_overlays
in
.Xr loader.conf 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa efi/
the
.Xr uefi 8
EFI System Partition (ESP) mount point
.It Pa firmware/
loadable binary firmware kernel modules
.It Pa fonts/
binary bitmap console fonts; see
.Xr loader.conf 5
and
.Xr vtfontcvt 8
.It Pa images/
beastie boot menu images; see
.Xr loader_lua 8
.It Pa kernel/
.Fx
kernel and modules; see
.Xr kldstat 8
.It Pa kernel.old/
alternative kernel and modules
.It Pa loader.conf
boot loader configuration; see
.Xr loader.conf 5
.It Pa loader.conf.d/
.Xr loader.conf 5
configuration files
.It Pa lua/
scripts for the Lua boot loader; see
.Xr loader_lua 8
.It Pa modules/
third-party loadable kernel modules, such as those installed with
.Xr pkg 8
or from
.Xr ports 7
.It Pa zfs/
ZFS
.Xr zpool 8
cache files
.El
.It Pa /compat/
files supporting binary compatibility with other operating systems
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "loader.conf.d" -compact
.It Pa linux/
default location for
.Xr linux 4
compatibility run-time
.El
.It Pa /dev/
device nodes and special files; see
.Xr intro 4
and
.Xr devfs 4
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "loader.conf.d" -compact
.It Pa ada0
first ATA storage device
.It Pa ada0p1
first partition on ada0
.It Pa cd0
first optical drive
.It Pa cuaU0
first USB serial port; see
.Xr cu 1
.It Pa da0
first SCSI storage device
.It Pa da0s1
first partition on da0
.It Pa dri/
GPU character device nodes; see
.Xr drm 7
.It Pa drm/
GPU
.Xr drm 7
special files
.It Pa fd/
file descriptor files; see
.Xr fd 4
.It Pa fd0
first floppy drive
.It Pa gpt/
storage partitions by GPT label
.It Pa mmcsd0
first SD storage device
.It Pa mmcsd0s1
first partition on mmcsd0
.It Pa nda0
first NVMe storage device attached via
.Xr cam 3
.It Pa null
infinite loop that accepts anything and contains nothing
.It Pa nvd0
first NVMe storage device using NVMe namespaces
.It Pa pts/
pseudo-terminals; see
.Xr pts 4
.It Pa random
source of weak randomness; see
.Xr random 4
.It Pa sa0
first tape drive
.It Pa usb/
USB busses
.It Pa vmm/
active
.Xr bhyve 8
virtual machines
.It Pa zvol/
.Xr zfs 8
volumes
.El
.It Pa /entropy
provides initial state to RNG; see
.Xr save-entropy 8
.It Pa /etc/
base system configuration files and scripts; see
.Xr intro 5
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-update.conf" -compact
.It Pa auto_master
autofs
.Xr automount 8
configuration
.It Pa bluetooth/
bluetooth configuration files
.It Pa cron.d/
tables for driving scheduled tasks; see
.Xr crontab 5
.It Pa crontab
root's cron table
.It Pa defaults/
default system configuration files; see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa devd/
configuration for
.Xr devd 8 ,
the device state change daemon
.It Pa devfs.conf
boot time device configuration
.It Pa dma/
configuration for
.Xr dma 8
.It Pa freebsd-update.conf
configuration for the base system updater; see
.Xr freebsd-update 8
.It Pa fstab
static filesystem configuration; see
.Xr fstab 5
.It Pa hosts
database of local hosts if no network name server is running
.It Pa inetd.conf
configuration for
.Bx
heritage internet servers; see
.Xr inetd 8
.It Pa localtime
local timezone information; see
.Xr ctime 3
.It Pa jail.conf.d/
.Xr jail 8
startup scripts
.It Pa login.conf
login class capability database; see
.Xr login.conf 5
.It Pa machine-id
defines the UUID for the local system, required for dbus
.It Pa mail/
.Xr sendmail 8
control files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "mailer.conf" -compact
.It Pa aliases
addresses to deliver system mail
.It Pa mailer.conf
.Xr mailwrapper 8
configuration
.El
.Pp
.It Pa motd.template
message displayed upon tty login; see
.Xr motd 5
.It Pa mtree/
system mapper specification; see
.Xr mtree 8
.It Pa newsyslog.conf.d/
log rotation configuration files.
.It Pa ntp/
stored time for the Network Time Protocol
.It Pa ntp.conf
configuration for the NTP client,
.Xr ntpd 8
.It Pa pam.d/
configuration files for the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) library;
see
.Xr pam 3
.It Pa periodic/
scripts that are run daily, weekly, or monthly by
.Xr cron 8 ;
see
.Xr periodic 8
.It Pa pf.conf
configuration for the Packet Filter firewall; see
.Xr pf 4
.It Pa pkg/
default configuration for the package manager,
.Xr pkg 8
.It Pa ppp/
PPP configuration files; see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa rc.conf
system and daemon configuration; see
.Xr rc.conf 5
.It Pa rc.d/
system and daemon startup/control scripts; see
.Xr rc 8
.It Pa resolv.conf
DNS configuration; see
.Xr resolv.conf 5
.It Pa resolvconf.conf
DNS configuration manager configuration, often generated by
local-unbound; see
.Xr local-unbound 8
or
.Xr resolvconf 8
.It Pa security/
OpenBSM audit configuration files; see
.Xr audit 8
.It Pa ssh/
OpenSSH configuration files; see
.Xr ssh 1
.It Pa ssl/
OpenSSL configuration files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "untrusted/" -compact
.It Pa cert.pem
System trust store in bundle form; see
.Xr certctl 8 .
.It Pa certs/
System trust store in OpenSSL hashed-directory form; see
.Xr certctl 8 .
.It Pa openssl.cnf
OpenSSL configuration file; see
.Xr openssl.cnf 5 .
.It Pa untrusted/
Explicitly distrusted certificates; see
.Xr certctl 8 .
.El
.It Pa sysctl.conf
kernel state defaults; see
.Xr sysctl.conf 5
.It Pa syslog.conf
system log configuration
.It Pa ttys
tty creation configuration; see
.Xr getty 8
.It Pa wpa_supplicant.conf
client wifi configuration; see
.Xr wpa_supplicant.conf 5
.El
.It Pa /home/
home directories for users; the typical home for an interactive user
.Va beastie
would be
.Pa /home/beastie/
.It Pa /lib/
system libraries critical to binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "nvmecontrol/" -compact
.It Pa geom/
class-specific libraries for the
.Xr geom 8
utility
.It Pa nvmecontrol/
vendor-specific libraries to extend the
.Xr nvmecontrol 8
utility
.El
.It Pa /libexec/
system utilities critical to binaries in
.Pa /bin
and
.Pa /sbin
.It Pa /media/
mount points for removable storage media such as CDs, DVDs,
and USB drives; see
.Xr automount 8 ,
or
.Xr bsdisks 8
if a using a desktop environment from
.Xr ports 7
.It Pa /mnt/
empty directory commonly used by
system administrators as a temporary mount point
.It Pa /net/
automounted NFS shares; see
.Xr auto_master 5
.It Pa /nonexistent/
a non-existent directory;
by convention, it serves as a home directory for user accounts
that need no home directory; see also
.Pa /var/empty/
.It Pa /proc/
process file system; see
.Xr procfs 4
.It Pa /rescue/
statically linked programs for emergency recovery; see
.Xr rescue 8
.It Pa /root/
home directory of the root user
.It Pa /sbin/
fundamental
.Bx
system administration utilities; see
.Xr intro 8
.It Pa /tmp/
temporary files commonly removed between system reboots;
see
.Va clear_tmp_enable
in
.Xr rc.conf 5
.It Pa /usr/
contains the majority of user utilities and applications
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-dist/" -compact
.It Pa bin/
common utilities, programming tools, and applications; see
.Xr intro 1
.It Pa freebsd-dist/
distribution files
.Pq like base.txz ;
see
.Xr release 7
and
.Xr bsdinstall 8
.It Pa include/
standard C include header files
.It Pa lib/
shared and
.Xr ar 1 Ns -type
libraries; see
.Xr intro 3
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa clang/
shared libraries for the system compiler,
.Xr clang 1
.It Pa compat/
shared libraries for compatibility
.It Pa debug/
standalone debug data for the kernel and base system libraries and binaries
.It Pa dtrace/
.Xr dtrace 1
library scripts
.It Pa engines/
OpenSSL
.Pq Cryptography/SSL toolkit
dynamically loadable engines
.It Pa flua/
.Fx
Lua shared libraries
.It Pa i18n/
shared libraries for internationalization
.El
.Pp
.It Pa lib32/
32-bit compatibility libraries
.It Pa libdata/
miscellaneous utility data files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa ldscripts/
linker scripts; see
.Xr ld 1
.It Pa pkgconfig/
collections of compiler and linker flags for the
.Xr pkgconf 1
development tool
.El
.Pp
.It Pa libexec/
system daemons and utilities executed by programs
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "bsdinstall/" -compact
.It Pa bsdconfig/
utilities called by the ncurses
.Fx
configuration wizard
.It Pa bsdinstall/
utilities for
.Xr bsdinstall 8
.It Pa dwatch/
profiles for
.Xr dwatch 1
.It Pa fwget/
utilities called by
.Xr fwget 8
.It Pa hyperv/
scripts for communicating with the Hyper-V hypervisor
.It Pa lpr/
utilities and filters for the line printer system; see
.Xr lpr 1
.It Pa sendmail/
the
.Xr sendmail 8
binary; see
.Xr mailwrapper 8
.It Pa sm.bin/
restricted shell for
.Xr sendmail 8 ;
see
.Xr smrsh 8
.It Pa zfs/
Z file system utilities
.El
.Pp
.It Pa local/
local executables, libraries, etc, installed by
.Xr pkg 7
or
.Xr ports 7
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa bin/
local user utilities, see
.Xr intro 1
.It Pa etc/
local program configurations
.It Pa include/
local library headers
.It Pa lib/
local libraries
.It Pa lib32/
local 32-bit compatability libraries
.It Pa libdata/
local utility data files
.It Pa libexec/
utilities executed by local utilities
.It Pa sbin/
local administration utilities
.It Pa share/
local architecture-independent files
.It Pa share/doc/
local documentation
.It Pa share/doc/freebsd/
articles, books, FAQ, and handbooks available from the
.Fx
project
.It Pa share/man/
local manual pages; see
.Xr man 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa obj/
architecture-specific target tree produced by building
.Fx
from source; see
.Xr build 7
.It Pa ports/
.Fx
ports collection; see
.Xr ports 7
.It Pa sbin/
system daemons and utilities meant for user execution; see
.Xr intro 8
.It Pa share/
architecture-independent files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa atf/
scripts for the Automated Testing Framework; see
.Xr ATF 7
.It Pa bhyve/
.Xr bhyve 8
keyboard mappings
.It Pa calendar/
system-wide calendar files; see
.Xr calendar 1
.It Pa certs/
TLS certificates for
.Xr openssl 1
.It Pa dict/
word lists; see
.Xr look 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa freebsd
.Fx Ns -specific
terms, proper names, and jargon
.It Pa web2
words from Webster's Second International
.El
.Pp
.It Pa doc/
miscellaneous documentation
.It Pa dtrace/
scripts for the Dynamic Tracing Compiler; see
.Xr dtrace 1
.It Pa examples/
various examples for users and programmers
.It Pa firmware/
firmware images loaded by userland programs
.It Pa games/
ASCII text files used by
.Bx
heritage games, see
.Xr intro 6
.It Pa keys/
known trusted and revoked keys
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa pkg/
fingerprints for
.Xr pkg 7
and
.Xr pkg 8
.El
.Pp
.It Pa locale/
localization files; see
.Xr setlocale 3
.It Pa man/
system manual pages; see
.Xr man 1
.It Pa misc/
miscellaneous system-wide files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa ascii
chart of the ASCII codepoints
.It Pa flowers
the meanings of flowers
.It Pa magic
magic numbers used by
.Xr file 1
.It Pa termcap
terminal characteristics database; see
.Xr termcap 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa mk/
templates for make; see
.Xr make 1
.It Pa nls/
national language support files
.It Pa security/
data files for security policies such as
.Xr mac_lomac 4
.It Pa sendmail/
.Xr sendmail 8
configuration files
.It Pa skel/
example
.Pa .\&
(dot) files for new accounts
.It Pa snmp/
MIBs, example files and tree definitions for the SNMP daemon
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa defs/
tree definition files for use with
.Xr gensnmptree 1
.It Pa mibs/
management Information Base
.Pq MIB
files
.El
.Pp
.It Pa syscons/
.Xr syscons 4
files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa fonts/
console fonts; see
.Xr vidcontrol 1
and
.Xr vidfont 1
.It Pa keymaps/
console keyboard maps; see
.Xr kbdcontrol 1
and
.Xr kbdmap 1
.It Pa scrnmaps/
console screen maps
.El
.Pp
.It Pa sysroot/
files necessary for the -sysroot compiler/linker argument to build non-native
binaries
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "VERSION/" -compact
.It Pa VERSION/
files for
.Fx
release VERSION;
by convention,
.Dq VERSION
matches
.Xr uname 1
.Fl r
.It Pa VERSION/MACHINE.MACHINE_ARCH/
represent the binary ABI for these files;
.Dq MACHINE
matches
.Xr uname 1
.Fl m ;
.Dq MACHINE_ARCH
matches
.Xr uname 1
.Fl p
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tabset/
tab description files for a variety of terminals; used in
the termcap file; see
.Xr termcap 5
.It Pa vi/
localization support and utilities for the
.Xr vi 1
editor
.It Pa vt/
files used by the system console; see
.Xr vt 4
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Fl -compact
.It Pa fonts/
console fonts; see
.Xr vidcontrol 1 ,
.Xr vidfont 1 ,
and
.Xr vtfontcvt 8
.It Pa keymaps/
console keyboard maps; see
.Xr kbdcontrol 1
and
.Xr kbdmap 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa zoneinfo/
timezone configuration information; see
.Xr tzfile 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa src/
.Fx
source code; see
.Xr development 7 ;
the layout of the source tree is described by the top-level
.Pa README.md
file
.Pp
.It Pa tests/
the
.Fx
test suite; see
.Xr tests 7
.El
.It Pa /var/
log, temporary, transient, and spool files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "preserve/" -compact
.It Pa account/
system accounting files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Pa acct
execution accounting file; see
.Xr acct 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa at/
timed command scheduling files; see
.Xr at 1
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Pa jobs/
job files
.It Pa spool/
output spool files
.El
.Pp
.It Pa audit/
security event audit trail files; see
.Xr audit 8
.It Pa authpf/
user shell sessions for authenticating gateways; see
.Xr authpf 8
.It Pa backups/
critical system configuration backups
.It Pa cache/
miscellaneous cache files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Pa pkg/
cached packages for
.Xr pkg 8
.It Pa cups/
cached printers for the Common Unix Prinitng system; see
.Xr cups 1
.El
.Pp
.It Pa crash/
default directory to store kernel crash dumps; see
.Xr crash 8
and
.Xr savecore 8
.It Pa cron/
files used by cron; see
.Xr cron 8
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
.It Pa tabs/
crontab files; see
.Xr crontab 5
.El
.Pp
.It Pa db/
autogenerated system-specific database files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "freebsd-update/" -compact
.It Pa etcupdate/
temporary files and log for
.Xr etcupdate 8
.It Pa freebsd-update/
downloads and temporary files for
.Xr freebsd-update 8
.It Pa pkg/
package database
.El
.Pp
.It Pa empty/
for use by programs that require an empty directory,
used for instance by
.Xr sshd 8
for privilege separation
.It Pa games/
status and score files for
.Bx
heritage games
.It Pa heimdal/
Kerberos server databases; see
.Xr kdc 8
.It Pa lib/
state information for ported Linux applications
.It Pa log/
system log files
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "bsdinstall_log" -compact
.It Pa Xorg.0.log
.Xr Xserver 1
log, if
.Xr X 7
is installed rotates to
.Pa Xorg.0.log.old
.It Pa aculog
serial line access log; see
.Xr cu 1
.It Pa auth.log
system authentication log
.It Pa bsdinstall_log
system installation log
.It Pa cron
scheduled task log; see
.Xr cron 8
.It Pa cups/
logs for
.Xr cups 1
.It Pa daemon.log
default log for system daemons
.It Pa devd.log
default log for device state change daemon
.It Pa dmesg.today
system message buffer log, rotates to
.Pa dmesg.yesterday
.It Pa debug.log
undiscarded debug syslog messages
.It Pa lpd-errs
logs for the line printer spooler daemon; see
.Xr lpd 8
.It Pa maillog
.Xr sendmail 8
log, rotates and compresses to maillog.0.bz2
.It Pa messages
general system log; see
.Xr syslogd 8
.It Pa mount.today
currently loaded
.Xr fstab 5 ,
rotates to
.Pa mount.yesterday
.It Pa pf.today
packet filter firewall log; see
.Xr pf 4
.It Pa pflog
saved packets caught by
.Xr pflogd 8
.It Pa ppp.log
see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa security
transcript of events marked with the security flag
.It Pa setuid.today
listing of executable files which run with elevated permissions, rotates
to
.Pa setuid.yesterday
.It Pa userlog
logs changes in users or groups
.It Pa utx.lastlogin
last login log; see
.Xr getutxent 3
.It Pa utx.log
login/logout log; see
.Xr getutxent 3
.El
.Pp
.It Pa mail/
user mailbox files
.It Pa msgs/
system messages database; see
.Xr msgs 1
.It Pa preserve/
unused, present for historical reasons
.It Pa quotas/
UFS quota information files
.It Pa run/
files containing information about the operating system since it was booted
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "wpa_supplicant/" -compact
.It Pa bhyve/
.Xr bhyve 8
virtual machine
.Xr unix 4 Ns -domain sockets
.It Pa ppp/
writable by the
.Dq network
group for command connection sockets; see
.Xr ppp 8
.It Pa utx.active
database of current users; see
.Xr getutxent 3
.It Pa wpa_supplicant/
IEEE Std. 802.11 wifi run time files
.El
.Pp
.It Pa rwho/
information about other systems on the local network; see
.Xr rwhod 8 ,
.Xr rwho 1 ,
and
.Xr ruptime 1
.It Pa spool/
printer and mail system spooling directories
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "clientmqueue/" -compact
.It Pa clientmqueue/
undelivered submission mail queue; see
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa cups/
print jobs and temporary files for
.Xr cups 1
.It Pa dma/
undelivered mail queue for
.Dx
Mail Agent; see
.Xr dma 8
.It Pa lock/
serial device locks; see
.Xr uucplock 3
.It Pa lpd/
line printer spooler daemon spool
.It Pa mqueue/
undelivered mail queue for
.Xr sendmail 8
.It Pa output/
line printer spooling directories
.El
.Pp
.It Pa tmp/
temporary files not removed between system reboots
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "vi.recover/" -compact
.It Pa vi.recover/
recovery files for the
.Xr vi 1
editor
.El
.Pp
.It Pa unbound/
files and configuration for
.Xr unbound 8
.It Pa yp/
the NIS maps; see
.Xr yp 8
.El
.El
.Sh NOTES
This manual page documents the default
.Fx
file system layout.
The actual hierarchy on a given system is defined at the system
administrator's discretion.
A well-maintained installation will include a customized version of
this document.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr apropos 1 ,
.Xr find 1 ,
.Xr grep 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr whereis 1 ,
.Xr which 1
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
manual page first appeared in 1979 with
.At v7 .
